By William New
A confidential report on the use of different ages by the head of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has now become available online. The report by the WIPO Internal Audit and Oversight Division found that over the past 24 years, WIPO Director General Kamil Idris repeatedly signed official documents showing his birth date to be nine years earlier than it is, and that he may have risen at WIPO based on the error.
At least 12 official UN travel and identification documents issued for, and signed by, Idris since 1983 showed his birth date as 26 August 1945, according to the report. Idris moved last year to change WIPO records to show he was actually born on 26 August 1954. During his time at WIPO, he used the 1954 date for other official documents such as driver’s licenses. (IPW, WIPO, 20 February 2007).
[We apologise, this link to the report (posted elsewhere on the Internet) now has been taken down on request of WIPO legal counsel. See WIPO’s takedown notice in the comments to this story below.]
(Takedown notice from WIPO)
Dear Mr. William New,
We were disappointed to see that you have posted on your website a leaked confidential report which was written by the Acting Internal Auditor of WIPO.
In case you are not aware, the said report, as it is clearly stated in the report itself, is confidential and needs to remain so by virtue of the WIPO Internal Audit Charter and the WIPO Staff Regulations and Staff Rules. This report, according to the Internal Audit Charter, is not even one that is sent automatically to our Member States. The Member States have therefore not received it, as it is still under confidential cover.
I therefore urge you to immediately remove the link that you have provided to the report, and to refrain from any other form of making it available to
the public.
I count on your prompt cooperation, failing which WIPO reserves the right to take any action deemed appropriate in order to protect the confidentiality rules of the Organization.
best regards
Edward Kwakwa
Legal Counsel
World Intellectual Property Organization
34 Chemin des Colombettes
1211 Geneva 20